adminDOHA. — Awer Mabil said his crucial sudden-death penalty for Australia was a thank you to the country that took his family in after they fled Sudan.
The 26-year-old scored Australia’s sixth spot-kick in a shootout against Peru before watching goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne heroically save the South Americans’ final penalty.
The win in Qatar saw Australia qualify for a fifth straight World Cup and Mabil completed a remarkable journey from a Kenyan refugee camp to football’s global showpiece.
“I knew I was going to score. It was the only way to say thank you to Australia on behalf of my family,” the winger said.
Mabil was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his parents fled conflict in Sudan, surviving on one meal a day as a child and kicking a ball around to pass the time.
After being resettled in Australia in 2006, he developed his football enough to join Adelaide United as a teenager and then moved to Denmark’s FC Midtjylland.
He is currently on loan to Turkish club Kasimpasa.
“I was born in a hut, a little hut. My hotel room here is definitely bigger than the hut, the room we had as a family in that refugee camp,” he said.
“For Australia to take us in and resettle us, it gave me and my siblings and my whole family a chance at life.
“That’s what I mean by thanking Australia for that chance of life, that chance of opportunity they allowed my family.”
Mabil has been a regular for the Socceroos under coach Graham Arnold and said he hoped what he had achieved would inspire other refugees.
“I scored, a lot of my team-mates scored, everybody played a part and maybe that refugee kid played a big part,” he said.
Mabil’s brother Awer Bul told the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper his family was overwhelmed with excitement.
“To be a boy who was born in a refugee camp, it was quite a moving moment for our community,” he said.
“Just to see him walk out there for the Australian team gives us a good feeling.”
They will play in World Cup Group D with holders France, Denmark and Tunisia. The finals run from November 21-December 18.
“I am just so proud of the players,” said Australia coach Graham Arnold. “Really no one knows what these boys have been through to get here, it was so hard, the whole campaign. The way they stuck at it, the way they committed themselves, brilliant.”
Australia’s Martin Boyle had missed their first penalty but they converted the next five to silence the thousands of Peru fans who had travelled for the game and provided noisy support but saw their team conjure up few opportunities.
Peru coach Ricardo Gareca said: “We had the expectation to make it, we were close but unfortunately it was not the case.
“We are flooded with pain. We gave our utmost. They emptied their tanks and we feel deceived, we are out of the World Cup. We wanted to avoid the penalty shootout.”
The single game playoff between the fifth-placed finishers in Asian and South American qualifying determined the 31st place at this year’s World Cup. — BBC Sport/Reuters.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter